tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Mar 01 18:48:04 2004

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Re: tuj luSpetmey

De'vID jonwI' ([email protected]) 

qon Quvar:
>>squaring IS multiplication:
>>    {M-logh boq'egh M; chen M^2}
>>    "M x M = M^2"

vIqon:
>It also bothers me slightly that the quantity <M> in front of
><-logh> might not be an integer, but that's probably some kind
>of Terran prejudice on my part.

I wanted to elaborate on this.  The reason that this bothers me
(slightly) is that when we say "2.5 times 3" in English, we're
multiplying a noun (3) by a fraction (2.5), which is just fine
because we know how to take a fraction of a noun.  But in Klingon,
when we say <2.5-logh boq'egh 3>, we're repeating the *action* of
<boq'egh 3> 2.5 times... and it isn't clear to me what it means
to repeat a fraction of an action.  It isn't quite the case that
3 is allying with itself twice, followed by half-allying with
itself again... it's really 3 allying with itself twice,
and then allying with another half of itself.  To me, it's just
weird to say <M-logh> when <M> is a real number.

But then again, this is how Klingons do multiplication (we're
told), and presumably this extends even to real numbers.  So
a Klingon would probably see nothing wrong with <M-logh boq'egh
N> or even <M-logh boq'egh M>.  A Klingon mathematician might
even be perfectly comfortable with <X-logh boq'egh Y> where
<X> and <Y> are complex numbers.

I think I may have rejected <M-logh boq'egh M> too prematurely
due to a Terran prejudice on my part.  I still don't like the
fact that <M> has to be repeated, but <M-logh boq'egh M> now
seems to me to be a reasonable way of saying <M^2>.

--
De'vID

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